McLaren talks up title hopes

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh believes the team can win every race remaining in 2005 and
snatch the titles from rivals Renault, who have led both championships since
the beginning of the season. While Renault and drivers' standings leader
Fernando...

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh believes the team can win every race remaining in 2005 and
snatch the titles from rivals Renault, who have led both championships since
the beginning of the season. While Renault and drivers' standings leader
Fernando Alonso were very strong in the early season, McLaren have fought
back hard. Juan Pablo Montoya took his first for the team at Silverstone and
Kimi Raikkonen was also on the podium.

Raikkonen, who is Alonso's main challenger in the title race, has had some
bad luck, such as crashing out of the European GP on the last lap while
leading. The last two races he's suffered the ten place demotion penalty on
the grid due to engine changes, without which he certainly would have been a
contender for the victories.

"We could have won the last eight races, we can win every remaining race,"
Whitmarsh told reporters at Silverstone. "Both of our drivers,
unquestionably at the moment, can beat Alonso and if we do that, and we have
good reliability and they (Renault) make a slip or two, then we're in there
to win both championships."

However, Whitmarsh knows it won't be an easy task. McLaren may have the
faster car but Alonso is consistent and has been around to take advantage
when Raikkonen has problems. The Spaniard won in Europe thanks to Kimi's
crash and widened the points gap between himself and the Finn in the last
two events. Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella has been unlucky but has
also been picking up points to add to Renault's tally.

The other teams not being as competitive as Renault and McLaren is something
Whitmarsh would like to see change. "Renault has been remarkably reliable,
they've done a solid job," he said. "There's no-one other than us taking the
points from Renault unfortunately, we could do with a few others up there.
The constructors' is probably an easier one than the drivers', but we can
win it and we are there to win it."

Renault believed that the British GP would be one of the harder races for
them but it was much better than they feared. Alonso took pole position and
finished the race second, while Fisichella came home fourth -- if not for a
stall in his second pit stop, Fischella would have been third instead of
Raikkonen.

"Our ambitions were not
particularly high when we arrived (at Silverstone), after the recent test
where we saw that McLaren were very competitive," said engineering chief Pat
Symonds. "However, we took the fight to them this weekend and came away with
a very creditable result."